


Coda

by margrave



Category: tomb of the sea, 沙海, 盗墓笔记
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 21:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16004111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/margrave/pseuds/margrave
Summary: He couldn't stop crying. It would be embarrassing if he could summon up an emotion that wasn't relief and mourning.(Coda to the series.)





	Coda

**Author's Note:**

> Not edited. All mistakes mine. I watched the series finale yesterday and wrote the following in about two hours this morning.
> 
> Sha Hai gave me Qin Hao's Wu Xie and I'm forever grateful. I love Wu Xie.

He couldn't stop crying. It would be embarrassing if he could summon up an emotion that wasn't relief and mourning. He was all hollowed out, collapsed into himself: pathetic and sad, his purpose served. He has done so much worse in these past ten years than cry inside a fucking car after finally taking down a thousand year old cult set on the destruction of his family and all he cared about. 

Fuck, his life was an online novel.

Pangzi opened the passenger side door, sat down and closed the door, locking the two of them inside, warning others off.

Wu Xie leaned his head against car window, hand on his face, tears unstoppable. 

They sat in silence for a long time.

…

“We have to get the brat checked up.” Said Pangzi, head turned to check up Li Cu. “If we leave now we can make it to the pick up point. Get him all sorted and onto the train.”

Wu Xie had fucked up Li Cu’s life. He took the kid from his ordinary life into a world where he faced death at every turn, and he had left him in the midst of the their enemy with a few fucking words and a mission. Li Cu met every demand, and in doing so sacrificed his innocence: life was fragile and he was alone in a world that didn't care.

He nodded in agreement.

Pangzi looked at him and sighed. “Get up, I'm driving.” 

Wu Xie looked at him blankly, he was drained, his head felt light, and everything was unreal and unimportant.

Pangzi let out a long sighed. “You are useless as you are.” He got out of the car walking around to the driver’s side. Pangzi opened the door and hauled Wu Xie out.

Wu Xie stumbled and fell into him, and let himself be dragged around to the passenger side. “Get in.” 

Wu Xie got in.

…

The drive to the pick up point was long. Pangzi kept up a stream of commentary about his business, how Xiao Hua had given him some investment tips, how Xiu Xiu’s right hook is that much stronger, and what seemed like an update on every person they knew. 

Wu Xie hasn't been home in years. He had kept in contact with almost everyone via text messages and phone calls. He had kept his distance because he needed to be detached, to see everyone as piece on the board. He couldn't look into their eyes and see what he knew was true: he was a monster.

He looked into the rear-view mirror: Li Cu’s unconscious form the only thing he could see. 

…

They reached the drop off point where a team of Wu family's members and Zhang Ri Shan's followers were waiting.

They greeted him with calls of Xiao San Ye, smiles of relief on their faces. Wu Xie might have nodded back in greeting, he couldn't be sure. So many Nine Gate family members had died today.

Pangzi’s strong hand a steady presence on his shoulder or arm at all times, guiding him to where he needed to be.

The medic checked on Li Cu, pronounced him extremely lucky. No broken bones, he had gotten off relatively light considering the beating he received, and being thrown out of a second storey building. They bandaged him up and changed him into something a civilian would wear.

Pangzi looked at Li Cu being lifted into the back of a car that was going to transfer him on to the train that would return him to normalcy. “You don't want to wait for him to wake up?”

Wu Xie stared at Li Cu’s bandaged head and thought about the promise he made to the kid. “No. He need to go home now.” 

…

Pangzi doesn't take them to any of the rendezvous points. Instead he drove to a small rundown inn that looked like it was going to collapse on itself and got them a room. He ordered half of their menu and purchased what seemed like their whole supply of booze. 

“I'm invoicing the Wu and Zhang family for all of this.” Pangzi grinned and passed him an open bottle of baijiu.

Wu Xie grabbed the bottle, knocked their bottles together and took a swallow.

The burn of the baijiu down his throat brought tears to his eyes.

…

Wu Xie woke up the next morning to a full bladder and the chainsaw snores of Pangzi. He had slept on the floor because getting into bed was too difficult. He really needed to stop drinking with Pangzi, the bastard can drink like a fucking fish and be up the next morning as if nothing had happened.

His head throbbed at the smallest sound and movement, and he had to make the slow crawl to the toilet on his hands and knees.

It was nobody's fucking business if he pissed his pants or not. That's what showers were for.

…

He sat in the passenger's’ seat, head against the window, and tried not to move in damp clothing that chafed. His sunglasses was secured to his head, and he had downed a handful of painkillers that might be working. 

Pangzi was singing an old song about lost love in the driver’s seat, his hair blown wildly about by the wind from the open window.

Wu Xie hated him with every bit of of his body. 

“Tian Zhen! Where to now?” Pangzi loudly asked, grin spread across his face.

Wu Xie wanted to punch the bastard in the face, but moving would have hurt to much. He pulled out his phone, somehow it had miraculously survived explosions and being punched by a fucking mystical illusion projected by a dried up corpse. He has about eighty messages waiting for him. He ignored most of them, responding to Xiao Hua's concerned questions, saying fuck off to Zhang Ri Shan, and typing out a thanks to Er Shu. Then he turned off his phone.

He glanced at Pangzi, still singing loudly along with the radio, steady like a mountain, and willing to walk with him into hell, no questions asked.

A small smile appeared on Wu Xie's face. “Keep on driving.” Head leaned back against the seat. “We have got some time before we go meet Xiao-ge.”

 

\--FIN--


End file.
